Crystallography Newsletter Volume 9, No. 1, January 2017 Rigaku Oxford Diffraction European User's Meeting In this issue: European User's Meeting Rigaku X-ray forum Crystallography in the news Survey of the month Last month's survey Product spotlight Videos of the month Lab in the spotlight Useful link Upcoming events Recent crystallographic papers Book review The 2017 European User's Meeting will be held within Merton College of the University of Oxford on 22nd to 23rd of March. The meeting will be a great opportunity to join us to Rigaku Oxford Diffraction discover the latest developments at Rigaku Oxford Diffraction and also hear from the user invites all users of Rigaku equipment community about their experiences with their Single Crystal Diffraction systems. to join us on our X-ray forum The meeting will have a workshop focus where the latest tips and tricks within CrysAlisPro will be discussed. There will also be a session covering Olex2 which will include examples of how to solve and refine advanced structures. Finally, there will be a feedback session for those of you wishing to stay, where you may promote your ideas to members of Rigaku Oxford Diffraction. To reserve your place, e-mail [email protected] Crystallography in the news January 2, 2017. In research conducted at SACLA, Japan's XFEL (X-ray free electron laser) facility, membrane protein folding has been captured for the first time in 3D and at a single-atom level. Lead author Eriko Nango of Kyoto University explains that, whereas www.rigakuxrayforum.com conventional X-ray crystallography only captures static protein structures, SACLA has enabled the team to observe minute changes in protein structures during transformation. Here you can find discussions about software, general crystallography issues and more. It’s January 3, 2017. UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists have uncovered the also the place to download the latest version of chemical process behind anti-cancer properties of a spicy Indian pepper plant called the Pro Rigaku Oxford Diffraction’s CrysAlis software long pepper, whose suspected medicinal properties date back thousands of years. The for single crystal data processing. secret lies in the chemical Piperlongumine (PL). We look forward to seeing you on there soon. January 5, 2017. A symposium to honor a retired Florida State professor who made major contributions to the world of structural biology attracted an unprecedented number of members of the National Academy of Sciences to Tallahassee. The Caspar Structural Survey of the month Biology Symposium, held Jan. 7-8 at Florida State University, honored Donald Caspar, professor emeritus of biological science at Florida State, who turned 90 during the symposium. January 6, 2017. Japanese researchers have assembled a 144-component ball-shaped "tetravalent Goldberg polyhedron", the largest known synthetic cage made from metal ions and organic molecules. Having produced a smaller version of the hitherto unseen molecular assembly by chance, the University of Tokyo scientists predicted and produced a larger version. That achievement suggests "mathematics could be a useful tool to establish a self-assembly design principle," according to team-member Daishi Fujita, something that chemists have been keen to show. January 9, 2017. Increasingly, researchers are using computer modeling to attain a more realistic picture of the movement of biomolecules in their natural environment. Prof. Rommie E. Amaro, at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), discusses the use of computational techniques to predict how enzymes regularly shift their configurations, revealing potential vulnerable areas for drug targeting. January 10, 2017. Dr. Antoine Buchard, Whorrod Research Fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies (CSCT), discusses his experience at the 2016 edition of the meeting of inorganic chemists recently appointed (MICRA). The meeting took place at the University of Bath from the 5th to the 7th of September 2016. Since its initiation in 1984, this biennial conference has become an important and powerful networking event for the UK's inorganic chemistry community. January 11, 2017. Richard Marsh (BS '43), senior research associate in chemistry, emeritus, at Caltech, passed away on January 3, 2017, at the age of 94. Marsh, who went by the name Dick, was a crystallographer and a colleague, mentor, and friend to generations of scientists. His career at Caltech started before World War II, spanned the golden age of structural chemistry led by Caltech???s Linus Pauling, and continued to flourish into the 21st century. January 11, 2017. Bacterial cells have an added layer of protection, called the cell wall, that animal cells don't. Duke University researchers, led by Dr. Seok-Yong Lee, have now provided the first close-up glimpse of a protein, called MurJ, that is crucial for building the bacterial cell wall and protecting it from outside attack. January 15, 2017. The Dalian Coherent Light Source, whose completion was announced in Beijing, has a twist that makes it unique: It is the only large laser light source in the world dedicated to the particular range of short-wavelength light called vacuum ultraviolet, which makes it "a new tool for the detection and analysis of molecules undergoing chemical reactions". January 15, 2017. Researchers from the Laboratoire de cristallographie et sciences des mat??riaux (CNRS/Ensicaen/Unicaen), the Laboratoire catalyse et spectrochimie (CNRS/Ensicaen/Unicaen), and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic have been successful in using electron diffraction to reveal the structure of nanocrystals. Their method is so sensitive that it has even located the position of hydrogen atoms for the first time. January 17, 2017. Researchers at the University of Manchester, led by Prof. David Last month's survey Leigh, hope their chemically produced, three-strand molecular knot will some day form the foundation for very light and strong materials. The new knot is a circular triple helix only 20 nanometers long, containing only 192 atoms. January 23, 2017. Chemists at Carnegie Mellon University, from the lab of Professor Rongchao Jin, have demonstrated that synthetic nanoparticles can achieve the same level of structural complexity, hierarchy and accuracy as their natural counterparts – biomolecules. The study, published in Science, also reveals the atomic-level mechanisms behind nanoparticle self-assembly. Product spotlight: BioSAXS-2000 Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) Kratky camera system Rigaku's BioSAXS-2000 SAXS camera is designed specifically to meet the needs of the structural biologist. Based on a patented two-dimensional Kratky design, the BioSAXS- Videos of the month 2000 takes up much less space than a conventional 3-pinhole camera but offers better flux characteristics. Best of all, the BioSAXS-2000 can be mounted on the open port of a Earth's Largest Diamonds Form in Metal-bearing Rigaku rotating anode X-ray generator, taking full advantage of existing infrastructure, or Part of Earth's Mantle it can be mated to a Rigaku microfocus sealed tube X-ray source. The BioSAXS AUTO configuration incorporates two time-saving features: an Automatic Sample Changer for unattended overnight operation and an Automatic Analysis Pipeline based on the world standard ATSAS package from EMBL Hamburg. Super-deep diamonds, which form more than 380 km deep in Earth's mantle, are invaluable tools for deep carbon scientists. Not only do they harbor clues about how they formed and therefore the reactions taking place inside Earth, they also trap small samples of mantle minerals, so-called inclusions, within their carbon crystal structure as they grow. These tiny samples of Earth's deep interior from the region where the diamond forms are preserved under high pressure within a super-strong, unreactive For more about BioSAXS-2000 > diamond shell. Many super-deep diamonds are small, have poor Lab in the spotlight clarity, and are not generally used as gemstones. However, in a paper published in the journal Science, a team of researchers led by Christine M. Dunham Wins 2017 Margaret C. Etter Evan Smith of the Gemological Institute of Early Career Award America (GIA) and including Deep Carbon Observatory collaborators Steven Shirey Christine M. Dunham, Ph.D. (Carnegie Institution for Science, USA) and Assistant Professor Fabrizio Nestola (Università degli Studi di Department of Biochemistry Padova, Italy), suggests giant gemstone Emory University School of Medicine diamonds, like the 3106 carat Cullinan, are 1510 Clifton Rd., Room G223 super-deep diamonds formed under special Atlanta, Georgia 30322 mantle conditions. For more > The Dunham laboratory studies the structure and function of bacterial protein synthesis. The ribosome is a large macromolecular machine that produces all proteins in every living organism and is the target for half of all clinical antibiotics. Therefore understanding how the ribosome is regulated is a fundamental question in biology. Women in Chemistry: Mary Lowe Good We study both the canonical function of the ribosome as well as the regulation of translation that results from stress. Major projects include understanding how the ribosome maintains the three nucleotide genetic code during elongation and how bacteria regulate translation in response to diverse ranges of stress. We use a number of interdisciplinary approaches including structural biology, biochemistry, and molecular biology techniques. From positions in academia, industry,